After the death of actor Sean Connery at the age of 90 in the Bahamas, tributes and commemorations continue to pour in on him from around the world on Saturday. But some Internet users, who have not forgotten Connery’s earlier views on the beating of women, have turned to social media to revive excerpts from his controversial 1980s interview with Barbara Walters.
“A reminder to all of you who honor Sean Connery. He was 57 years old when he gave this interview with Barbara Walters,” Yashar Ali, a New York Magazine employee, tweeted next to a clip of Connery’s television interview with Walters.
A reminder to all of you who honor Sean Connery.
He was 57 years old when he gave this interview with Barbara Walters. pic.twitter.com/LIIBqSWwgj
– Yashar Ali ð (@yashar) October 31, 2020
Throughout his career, Connery had been plagued by accusations of misogyny fuelled by comments he made to Playboy magazine more than five decades ago.
“I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with hitting a woman – although I don’t recommend doing it the same way you hit a man,” the actor said in 1965, “A slap in the face with an open hand is justified when all other alternatives fail.
More than 20 years later, in 1987, Connery told Walters that he had not “changed his mind” on the matter. “I don’t think it’s good [to slap a woman],” he said at the time. “I don’t think it’s that bad. I think it depends entirely on the circumstances and whether it deserves it.”
Connery went on to describe the cases where a woman’s slap is justified. “When you’ve tried everything else – and women are pretty good at it – you can’t help it,” he explained. “They want the last word, and you give them the last word, but they are not satisfied with the last word. They want to say it again and get into a really provocative situation, then I think it’s absolutely right”.
The actor stuck to what he said in a 1993 interview with Vanity Fair, and more than a decade later Connery claimed that his stance on the matter was out of context and insisted that it was wrong to hit a woman.
“In my opinion, I do not believe that any level of abuse against women is ever justified in all circumstances. Period,” he told the London Times in 2006.
While most news agencies published tributes for Connery without mentioning these earlier views, the accusation resurfaced among a number of social media users.
“It’s sad when someone famous dies, but I can’t ignore Sean Connery explaining why it’s sometimes necessary to slap women in the face one way or another,” the user @KennedyLoulou tweeted.
“RIP Sean Connery, a man who defends the need to slap women,” wrote the user @IdalinBobe.
The Twitter user @Bananatiergod added: “I just found out that Sean Connery…HORRIBLE has…HORRIBLE ideals about women (aka slap them “only when they deserve it”) and I am in no way claiming that his acting skills excuse this behavior. Not at all. ALWAYS treat women with love and respect, guys!”
In an op-ed published in The Scotsman on Saturday, it was questioned whether Connery’s comments on beating women were “out of time”.
Tekk.tv contacted Connery’s representatives with the request to comment….
